Art is beautiful, artist must be beautiful – repeated, when she entered in the fire, in one of her first performances, famous artist Marina Abramovic.
She squeezed her body, she cried because of pain, she wanted to die in the fire, she loved, she sat motionless for days. Her spirit become her body. She wanted to show that artist is present just in way of presenting his life. She doesn’t want to describe art, she lived art. Her body has some kind of narration, everything was written there: blood, tears and happiness. Nothing can be real, what is not written with the body.
Life is performance and dad has to be performance. Marina Abramovic will die in three places, because she wanted to live everywhere. Where she will be, we wouldn’t have opportunity to know because: dad has to be secret, like life was.
One of the most famous works of Marina Abramovic and maybe one of the most dangerous was performance in the Student cultural center in Belgrade. Description of this work was:
I light the star.
I walk around the star.
I cut my hair and throw it into each end of the star.
I cut my fingernails and throw them into each end of the star.
I enter the empty space in the star and lie down.
Performance in Student cultural center in Belgrade, one of her first works SOURCE
With this performance she wanted to point out past during the period of communism. In one moment she lost consciousness. Public does not react, because they thought that was part of performance. Few minutes later two people from the public released what is happening and saved Marina from the fire.
There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired.
I am the object.
During this period I take full responsibility.
This was description of her performance in Studio Morra, Naples.
Performance in the studio Morra, Naples SOURCE
That was her early work and with that she wanted to show that art is living in her body and her body is free to be destroyed. She is just object of art, others are doing with them everything as they want to. We can love and hate art and we can do the with the body artist everything what we want to.
At the beginning everything seemed normal, then people from the public started to torture Marina, they poured her with the water, they were wearing her around and in the end one man take a gun and put him in Marinas hand. In that moment she released that she has to pull the border between art and life. She shoes how life can be close to dad and she chose to live, because, Artist have to be present.
A lot of performance Marina Abramovic did with his partner Ulay. His last work wanted to show in symbolic way their separation. They walked the entire length of the Great Wall of China. Marina started from the east and Ulaye from the west.
Marina Abramovic on the Grate wall of China SOURCE
They walked until they met. After 90 days, Marina sow Ulay and it was day of their meeting and separation in the same time. Art is happening in one moment when the happiness and sad are founded in one point. Marina Abramovic shows that here.
Moment of meeting SOURCE
When we think about performance we think about presence of the body but in the artistic work of Marina Abramovic we have one more important thing – her spirit is present too. The name of his the best and the most important performance is Artist is present. For three months during the opening hours in the museum Marina Abramovic sat silent and motionless at a table facing an empty chair in which visitors to the museum were invited to sit.
She was sitting in the blue dress in the March, she had red dress on the April and she finished in the white dress in May. Until she was performing her work in the other part of the museum young artist was performing her early works like some kind of retrospective.
Maybe, the most emotion moment was her meeting with Ulay, her partner and the biggest life lover. She gave him her hand and started to cry. With that act she shows that performance is exactly that – pure emotion. Artist was present in ours and in his life at the same time.
Theatrical play Life and dead of Marina Abramovic directed by Robert Wilson, presenting past, present and future of this artist. End of her life can be dad in metaphorical way or can be real dead of artist. Where she will be in the moment of her dead? Can she be present at her funeral? How she can be prepared for that moment? This theatrical play allows Marina to be concentrated in the moment of dead without fear. Those possibilities of dead are one of the leitmotifs of this play.
Life and dead of Marina Abramovic directed by Bob Wilson SOURCE
Robert Wilson wanted to show how one life can be presented in the theatre from the beginning until dead, including funeral where the character is present. Can an actor cast off death? How would a real death look on the stage? These are the questions that this performance sets. In the end its stays: Artist is present, its not important in which form and in witch time.
The end of life will be performance. Famous artist had idea to have three funerals in three cities: New York, Amsterdam and Belgrade – city where she become famous, city where she was happy and city where she was born. In whitch city will be her body nobody will know, because it would be last word of her performance. She would have three funerals because you can die just once and end is not finish, art have to survive and in that way art would survive.
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Thank you for reading.
